If you’re looking for a pulse check on the market, then last Saturday was the one to take. Only four days after the interest rate drop, I took my regular position behind the podium at the Calile Hotel to start the morning with 24 auctions. The properties ranged from entry level units to townhouses, local homes and prestige property.
In the lead up to the event, as news of the interest rate drop filtered through the market, we saw a surge in urgency. The top end saw buyers compete to purchase a prestige home in Teneriffe for $8.4 milion in the hours before auction. While the townhouse market was a bit more patient, approximately 20 buyers registered for the three townhouses on the order of sale. First up was an entry level townhouse at Toowong, with over 10 bidders registered. The property saw fierce competition and pushed through the million-dollar mark, eventually selling for $1.23 million.
A new level for similar properties in that area. That then became the theme of the morning, with the other two townhouses also selling with strong competition. After the Calile auctions, I took to the streets of Brisbane, calling auctions on the footpaths and the momentum continued to build. We broke suburb records in Stafford Heights, saw strong sales above $3 million in Ashgrove and live bidding above $6.5 million in Indooroopilly. Seventeen sales in all took place and as I turned into the garage, sounding like the late Tommy Raudonikis, I knew that the interest rate cut had pushed the market to a new level.